Title
Dynamics of the Magnitude, Breadth and Depth of the Antibody Response at Epitope Level Following Dengue Infection
Date Issued
05 July 2021
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Frontiers Media
Abstract
Dengue is a major public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical regions worldwide. Since the Zika epidemic and the increased co-circulation of other arboviruses, the serology-based diagnosis of dengue has become more problematic due to the high antigenic resemblance, especially among the flavivirus family. Therefore, a more comprehensive understanding of the diversity, specificity and temporal evolution of the antibody response following dengue infection is needed. In order to close this knowledge gap, we used a high-density peptide microarray of 9,072 linear peptides covering the entire proteome diversity of dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya viruses. The IgM and IgG antibody responses were measured against the designed microarray in symptomatic dengue infected individuals from an arbovirus endemic area in Peru and in overseas travelers returning to Belgium, as representatives of multiple-exposed and primary infections, respectively. Serum samples were collected longitudinally across four time points over the period of six months in Peru and over two time points in travelers. We show that epitopes eliciting the strongest flavivirus cross-reactive antibodies, in both primary and secondary infections were concentrated in the capsid, E, NS1, NS3 and NS5 proteins. The IgG antibody responses against NS1 and NS3 followed a rise-and-fall pattern, with peak titers between two to four weeks after onset of illness. The response to the E and NS5 proteins increased rapidly in the acute phase and was maintained at stable levels until at least 6 months after illness. A more scattered IgM antibody reactivity across the viral proteome was observed in the acute phase of the disease and that persisted through the 6-month window. The magnitude, breadth (i.e. number of unique epitopes targeted) and depth (i.e. number of epitope variants recognized) of the IgG response was higher in secondary infections compared to primary infections. For IgM antibodies, the magnitude of the response was higher in primary infected individuals whereas the breadth and depth of the response was lower in this group compared with the endemic subjects. Finally, through this arboviral proteome-wide epitope mapping, we were able to identify IgM and IgG dengue-specific epitopes which can be useful serological markers for dengue diagnosis and serostatus determination.
Volume
12
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Epidemiología Enfermedades infecciosas Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85110761945
PubMed ID
Source
Frontiers in Immunology
ISSN of the container
1664-3224
Sponsor(s)
We thank the staff from the Hospital de Santa Gema in Yurimaguas and from National Reference Center for Arboviruses at the ITM for their high-quality work and dedication in patient recruitment. The microarray design was created by KK in collaboration with BISC Global (Ghent, Belgium) and is submitted in parallel with this manuscript. We also thank the staff at the Molecular Diagnostics Center for Health & Bioresources at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (Vienna, Austria) and the staff at Schafer-N ApS (Copenhagen, Denmark). We are grateful to Anne Hauner for critically reading this manuscript. Finally, we are grateful to the study participants and their families. We acknowledge the support from the Belgian Directorate-general Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD) for the Framework Agreement 4 project (2017-2021), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, under the ZikaPLAN grant agreement 734584.4, the Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) program for the Innovation mandate under the Grant Agreement number HBC.2018.0327 and the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO G054820N). FFA holds a PhD scholarship funded by the DGD.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus